AFRIKAANS: As oudste kerk in Suid-Afrika is die Ned Geref Kerk in haar moeisame pad van kerkregtelike ontwikkeling andermaal gestrem toe ´n hofuitspraak tydens die Sinode van 1862 aanleiding gegee het tot die totstandkoming van afsonderlike sinodes. Hierdie ongelukkige gebeurtenis het lidmate diep teleurgestel maar terselfdertyd aangespoor om nie te rus voordat die breuk weer herstel is nie. Met die oog hierop is die Raad van Kerke gestig en sou hierdie raad op sy talle vergaderings onvermoeid ywer om die kerk weer te verenig. Intussen het ´n jong boorling van die geharde Stormberge in die Oos-Kaap, Jacobus Daniël Vorster, in 1935 predikant geword in die Ned Geref Kerk Tafelberg. Hy was lief vir die vak kerkreg en het ook daarin ´n M Div verwerf met die titel: “Kerk en Kerkregering van die Voortrekkers” terwyl sy Th D-proefskrif gehandel het oor: “Die Kerkregtelike Ontwikkeling van die Kaapse Kerk onder die Kompanjie 1652 tot 1795" As jong predikant moes Koot Vorster talle operasies ondergaan en daar is dikwels gevrees vir sy lewe, maar hy was bestem vir groter dinge want as Gereformeerde kerkregkundige sou hy algaande in statuur groei tot een van die grootste en kleurrykste kerkleiers wat die kerkverband nog opgelewer het. Hy dien vir dekades as skriba van die Ring van Kaapstad en as aktuarius van die Kaapse Kerk, maar waarvoor hy altyd onthou sal word is sy bydrae tot die totstandkoming van die Algemene Sinode in 1962. Na die Algemene Sinode het Vorster sy diepe insig in die Gereformeerde Kerkreg verder geopenbaar in die talle publikasies, artikels, adviese en optredes in sinodale vergaderings. Hy was meester van sy vak. Hy het telkens sy vermoë om duidelik te onderskei tussen die beginsels van die verskillende Kerkregstelsels getoon deur die Kerk en vergaderings terug te lei na die Gereformeerde kerkregtelike beginsels. So het hy ´n groot bydrae gelewer om die Ned Geref Kerk op die Gereformeerde spoor te hou of soms selfs te bring. Met sy agtergrond, sy akademiese onderlegdheid, sy deeglikheid en sterk standpuntinname rondom belangrike kerkregtelike sake was hy die regte persoon om die kerk kerkregtelik te begelei om die lang gekoesterde ideaal van kerkhereniging te bereik. In die Raad van Kerke en in Sinodes het hy die saak op ´n wyse gestel wat vertroue by afgevaardigdes en die gewone lidmate ingeboesem het. Hy het hom daarvoor beywer dat die Ordonnansie no 7 van 1843 geskrap word en dat ´n Kerkorde vir die verenigde kerk op die voetspoor van die Kerkorde van Dordrecht opgestel word. Daarom was dr Vorster dan ook die aangewese kerkregkundige om vir die Kerk, weliswaar gegrond op die Dordtse Kerkorde van 1618-1619, in 1962 ´n Gereformeerde Kerkorde voor te berei. In die finale voorbereiding van ´n Kerkorde vir die eerste Algemene Sinode is hy aangewys as voorsitter van die kommissie van Aktuarii wat die taak moes verrig. In hierdie belangrike voorbereidingswerk het hy, volgens die ander lede van die kommissie, die meeste van die werk vir eie rekening geneem. Hy is ook gevra om die voorgestelde Kerkorde by die onderskeie Sinodes voor te dra in afwagting vir vrae en kommentaar. Op die wyse het hy die voorreg gehad om binne ´n jaar of twee al die Sinodes by te woon. Die voorgestelde Kerkorde was so deeglik voorberei dat dit met min wysigings aanvaar is. Met hierdie Kerkorde het hy veral ´n groot bydrae gelewer om die Kerk te suiwer van die stille insypeling van Kollegialistiese denke, begrippe en taalgebruik, wat via die “Algemeen Reglement” van 1816 die Kaapse Kerk se Kerkwet ingedring het en later ook weerklank gevind het in die Kerkwette van die noordelike Ned Geref Kerke. Dit was ´n moeilike taak, aangesien veel Kollegialisties na jare vir selfs teoloë in die Ned Geref Kerk Gereformeerd voorgekom het, ten spyte van pogings om dit uit die Kerkwette te suiwer. Die Kerkorde van 1962, wat al die Kerkwette vervang het, was, as die breinwerk van dr Vorster, die finale sif. Met die totstandkoming van die Algemene Sinode van die Ned Geref Kerk in 1962 is die honderdjaar-oue droom van die kerkverband bewaarheid. Dr Koot Vorster het nie alleen die Sinode se nuwe naam gegee nie, maar ook die Algemene Sinode se eerste Aktuarius geword. Dit het hy vir baie jare gebly totdat hy binne die kerkverband tot Moderator van die Algemene Sinode verkies is. Dr Koot Vorster was índerdaad ´n merkwaardige kerkleier wie se groot bydrae tot die Ned Geref Kerk se kerkregtelike ontwikkeling verdere navorsing en optekening verdien. ENGLISH: The development of the Church Order of the Dutch Reformed Church was obstructed by a court order during its 1862 Synod which provocated the formation of seperate synods. Church members were prompted to restore church unity and therefore the Council of Churches was established. Dr Jacobus Daniel Vorster, as minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Tafelberg in Cape Town, loved the subject on Church Law and obtained a MDiv degree with the title: Church and church rule of the Voortrekkers while the title of his Th D reads: The canonical development of the Cape Church under the VOC from 1653 to 1795. Allthough the young Koot Vorster was very ill, he was destined for greater things. He became one of the greatest and most distinguished leaders of the D R C denomination. For decades he ministered as secretary of the Circuit of Cape Town and as Actuary of the Cape Synod but he will always be remembered for his contribution to the establishing of the 1962 General Synod. He was a master in his field. He had the ability to distinguish between the principles of the different church law systems and to take them back to the Reformed canonical principles. Vorster led the church in church law to reach the longstanding ideal of church unity. He did his best to remove the Ordonance nr 7 of 1843 from the lawbook and to bring about a Church Order based on the Order of Dordt of 1618- 1619. Vorster was chosen as Chairman of the Commission of Actuaries during the final preparation of the Order for the first General Synod. He was also asked to submit the proposed Order at the various Synods and it was accepted with very little change. vii With this Order, he made a large contribution towards purification of the quiet infiltration of Collegialistic thinking, expressions and use of language which entered the church law of the Cape Church through the “General Reglement” of 1816 and also affected the church law of the Northern churches. The Church Order of 1962 was to supersede all previous orders and is in its final form the brainchild of dr Vorster. With the establishing of the 1962 General Synod, a hundred year old dream of the church denomination, became a reality. Dr Koot Vorster became the first actuary of the General Synod and filled this post for many years until he was elected as Moderator of the General Synod. Dr Vorster was a remarkable church leader whose contribution to the D R C’s canonical development deserve further research and recording. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Church History and Church Policy / unrestricted

The complex human motor function of speech presents a scientifically interesting, yet relatively unexplored, means to study brain-behavior relationships. Fortunately, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which has been proven to characterize soft tissue excellently, has recently become a promising technique for the study of speech. MRI\'s contributions in speech research could lead to new and individualized treatment for speech disorders. Although many studies have shown that MRI can capture information about speech, this project sought to determine what covert information could be disclosed from MRI movies through multivariate analysis. The articulation of phoneme pairs was imaged using a novel sequence, and simultaneously recorded. The data were then analyzed using support vector machine (SVM) analysis and canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Determination of classification accuracy through SVM analysis revealed that phoneme pairs were distinguishable from one another consistently over 90% of the time using information found from MRI movie clips of the speech. Additionally, study of the SVM weights demonstrated that SVM could identify regions of the vocal tract that are used to form auditory distinctions between the phonemes. Finally, CCA revealed relationships between images and the frequencies in corresponding audio waveforms; once again, the speech articulators were identified as lending maximum correlation to the sound profile. These promising results demonstrate that multivariate analysis can uncover information that is known to be true concerning speech production. These analyses may perhaps even contribute to existing knowledge and thus provide a platform from which to advance the treatment of speech dysfunction. / Master of Science

Final publication is available at http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/related/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1005802 / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第19627号 / 医博第4134号 / 新制||医||1016(附属図書館) / 32663 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 萩原 正敏, 教授 松田 秀一, 教授 瀬原 淳子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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Vertebrate development is regulated by cellular communication by mechanisms of cell fate and cell behavior. These crucial mechanisms are regulated by cellular signaling and in the case of cell fate, cellular signaling results in transcription of developmentally important genes. Communication between cells can also result in regulation of cell behavior by acting on cytoskeletal elements rather than nuclear factors. One of the cellular signals that regulate both cell fate and cell behavior is the family of Wnt signaling molecules. Wnt5a is one of 19 Wnt molecules and has been previously demonstrated to play critical roles in many important processes in embryonic development as well tumor suppression. Despite many studies that lend credence to a pathway that regulates cell behavior for Wnt5a rather than cell fate, the identity of the pathway(s) Wnt5a impinges upon remains unclear. Despite the possibility of Wnt5a signaling through multiple pathways, here, focus is given to the non-canonical Wnt signaling pathway, a pathway that regulates cell behavior, also known as the Wnt/Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) pathway. The involvement of Wnt5a in the Wnt/PCP pathway was demonstrated with a genetic approach: crossing Wnt5a heterozygous mice with mice heterozygous for a component of the Wnt/PCP pathway to uncover genetic interactions in vivo. Hence, Wnt5a X Looptail (Lp) (Wnt/PCP) heterozygous crosses have been performed. Double heterozygotes for this intercross did not exhibit a decrease in viable progeny as compared to the decreased numbers of Lp heterozygotes. These observations demonstrated a lack of genetic interaction between Wnt5a and the PCP pathway. Wnt5a mutants possess phenotypes associated with deficits in the Wnt/PCP pathway, namely convergent extension (CE) defects and neural tube closure defects. However, upon further investigation of the increased penetrance of craniorachischisis in Wnt5a-/-;Lp+/-, Wnt5a mutants do not display the characteristic broadening of the neural floor plate commonly associated with Lp-/-. This supports that Wnt5a and PCP signaling are parallel pathways that have converged to regulate different aspects of CE and neural tube closure. Despite the complexity of Wnt5a and its potential involvement in multiple pathways, dissection of this will explain the broad range of phenotypes observed.

We compare the transition barrier that accompanies a first-order phase transition in the canonical and microcanonical ensemble. This is directly encoded in the probability distributions of standard Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations and a proper microcanonical sampling technique. For the example of droplet formation, we find that in both ensembles the transition barrier scales as expected but that the barrier is much smaller in the microcanonical ensemble. In addition its growth with system size is weaker which will enhance this difference for larger systems. We provide an intuitive physical explanation for this observation

The graph isomorphism problem has received a great deal of attention on both theoretical and practical fronts. However, a polynomial algorithm for the problem has yet to be found. Even so, the best of the existing algorithms perform well in practice; so well that it is challenging to find hard instances for them. The most efficient algorithms, for determining if a pair of graphs are isomorphic, are based on the individualization-refinement paradigm, pioneered by Brendan McKay in 1981 with his algorithm nauty. Nauty and various improved descendants of nauty, such as bliss and saucy, solve the graph isomorphism problem by determining a canonical representative for each of the graphs. The graphs are isomorphic if and only if their canonical representatives are identical. These algorithms also detect the symmetries in a graph which are used to speed up the search for the canonical representative--an approach that performs well in practice. Yet, several families of graphs have been shown to exist which are hard for nauty-like algorithms. This dissertation investigates why these graph families pose difficulty for individualization-refinement algorithms and proposes several techniques for circumventing these limitations. The first technique we propose addresses a fundamental problem pointed out by Miyazaki in 1993. He constructed a family of colored graphs which require exponential time for nauty (and nauty's improved descendants). We analyze Miyazaki's construction to determine the source of difficulty and identify a solution. We modify the base individualization-refinement algorithm by exploiting the symmetries discovered in a graph to guide the search for its canonical representative. This is accomplished with the help of a novel data structure called a guide tree. As a consequence, colored Miyazaki graphs are processed in polynomial time--thus obviating the only known exponential upper-bound on individualization-refinement algorithms (which has stood for the last 16 years). The preceding technique can only help if a graph has enough symmetry to exploit. It cannot be used for another family of hard graphs that have a high degree of regularity, but possess few actual symmetries. To handle these instances, we introduce an adaptive refinement method which utilizes the guide-tree data structure of the preceding technique to use a stronger vertex-invariant, but only when needed. We show that adaptive refinement is very effective, and it can result in dramatic speedups. We then present a third technique ideally suited for large graphs with a preponderance of sparse symmetries. A method was devised by Darga et al. for dealing with these large and highly symmetric graphs, which can reduce runtime by an order of magnitude. We explain the method and show how to incorporate it into our algorithm. Finally, we develop and implement a parallel algorithm for detecting the symmetries in, and finding a canonical representative of a graph. Our novel parallel algorithm divides the search for the symmetries and canonical representative among each processor, allowing for a high degree of scalability. The parallel algorithm is benchmarked on the hardest problem instances, and shown to be effective in subdividing the search space.

This project was designed to correlate environmental variables with the development of Pierce’s Disease (PD), an infection caused by the gram negative bacterium Xylella fastidiosa (Xf), in grapes (Hopkins et al. 2002). PD is one of the most difficult crop pathogens to manage because it is vectored by insects and its continued presence in the vine is usually fatal. PD is influenced by the interaction of host, disease and vector, and probably many other environmental variables. The general objective was to study and identify the most important variables involved in the expression of Pierce’s Disease. Over a two year period, from a total of eight sites in northern and southern California data was collected on forty-five environmental variables including those relating to soil moisture, soil chemistry, soil nutritional status, vine nutritional status, vine water status, in-season and dormant season climate, incidence of Xf in adjacent vineyard vegetation, sharpshooter species and abundance at each location, and proximity of vineyard field sites to citrus or riparian areas. The environmental variables were analyzed with canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) to determine significance of each as they correspond with increased disease severity. The significance of environmental variables produced by CCA indicates increased soil moisture as the leading cause for increased PD incidence; several other environmental variables positively correlate with increased disease presence. Conversely, vineyard factors identified by CCA as not conducive to disease formation may play an inhibitory role in PD severity. We undertook polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to test for the presence of PD in vegetative samples, using a 733 base pair probe specific to Xf. These samples indicate alternative hosts in adjacent locations which act as reservoirs of Pierce’s Disease as well as verifying diseased vines within the vineyard locations.

The occurrence of phytoplankton taxa, with special focus on harmful algal bloom (HAB) taxa, was monitored for one year off the central coast of California to examine both their co-occurrence and physical and chemical variables influencing their temporal patterns. Bi-weekly samples were taken from October 6, 2008 to October 5, 2009 in San Luis Obispo Bay, CA. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) of weekly samples indicated that 46.1% of the variability in species abundance was explained by the variables in the model, higher than previous reports. Cluster analysis divided phytoplankton communities into HAB and non-HAB groups of species, while shared distribution analysis identified specific co-occurring species of HABs. The HAB dinoflagellate group consisted exclusively of HAB taxa, including Cochlodinium polykrikoides Margalef, Dinophysis acuminata Claparède & Lachmann, and Alexandrium spp., and was correlated with a homogeneous water column and high nitrate concentration during the fall and winter seasons. The domoic acid producing diatoms Pseudo-nitzschia seriata (Cleve) H. Peragallo complex and Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima (Cleve) Heiden complex grouped with several other non-HAB diatoms, and were correlated with warm, thermally stratified waters of the summer season. These results contradict the classic diatom / dinoflagellate succession theory and suggest that event-scale processes influencing water column stability within seasons may influence the distribution of HAB species in near shore upwelling dominated regions.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第24168号 / 理博第4859号 / 新制||理||1695(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)准教授 笹倉 直樹, 准教授 髙山 史宏, 教授 橋本 幸士 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM